Among the most commonly found fences are the wood fences. These wood fences have been widely used over the years in conventional fencing constructions, especially around houses or the like. However, the maintenance of wood fences is often a tedious task since the wood is usually painted and the peeling of paint is difficult to overcome. When painting the wood for maintenance, the stripping of all the boards, rails and beams is generally required in order to have a good looking and long lasting new layer of paint.
One alternative to painted wood fences is to replace the wood by treated wood, either by substituting the existing wood or by treating the existing wood with suitable chemicals. Treated wood is usually more durable than painted wood and requires less maintenance. Replacing the existing wood is however costly and implies that the previous fence be discarded. As for treating existing wood, it generally pollutes and contaminates surrounding soils, and may even sterilize them.
Another usual substitute for conventional wood fences is a PVC fence. It has the advantage of being maintenance free and very long lasting. It is however very costly and usually difficult to install by unskilled persons.